


The Freelancers of Fort Tarsis

by SaddleTramp



Category: Anthem (Video Game)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Fluff and Angst, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-28
Updated: 2019-02-28
Packaged: 2019-11-07 05:43:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,150
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17954669
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SaddleTramp/pseuds/SaddleTramp
Summary: Two years after the Freelancers failure to stop the Heart of Rage, Ishar Valle is contracted to save Matthias Summer. Afterwards, he begins to help rebuild the Freelancers and his own team in order to fix what they failed to do.





	The Freelancers of Fort Tarsis

**Author's Note:**

> Anthem...what a mix! I wanted to write a sort of novelization of the story, but also to deepen the connections between various characters.

_ I dream of it every night.  _

_ The Heart of Rage.  _

_ The deaths of my fellow Freelancers. The cries of pure joy of the cyphers who heard the Anthem of Creation, before they were silenced forever.  _

_ Haluk calling me a coward. That sticks with me the most. I am no coward, but I’m also not afraid to admit that I was scared that day. When those titans spawned...I was glad I ran. I survived when Freelancers who have been fighting for years didn’t. _

_ And now what do I do? Mundane contracts that barely pay the bills. Enough to fix my javelin, ensure Owen and I have enough money to eat and pay for some pilot lessons.  _

_ Maybe one day this will change. But until something big comes along, the Freelancers and I are going to live day by day. _

_ Logging off. _

_ - _ Ishar Valle

Fort Tarsis, Bastion Frontier

The Forge was a place of refuge for Ishar. Here, he and Zoe would go over his Ranger, fixing the seals and upgrading what they could. It was here where he tinkered with his Hammerhead rifle, ensuring that it was the best it could be. It was here where he could relax, without contracts to worry about and without Owen badgering him about becoming a pilot.

_ Pilot lessons are going well, but he’s also a cypher. That alone means he will be spending years training to fly, let alone fight,  _ Ishar thought as he fiddled with the bolt of his rifle. The Hammerhead was a reliable weapon, but he also needed something with heavier stopping power. The ursix he almost faced today came to mind.  _ Maybe a Scattershot or Vengeance. _

Zoe was working on his Ranger, repairing the damage from the Shaper relic and the skorpions he faced earlier in the day. Acid had burned off some more of the paint, making the javelin look even more worn than ever before.  _ Maybe one day I will be able to afford a paint job.   _

“Ishar!” Owen’s voice came through his thoughts.  _ What? Why is he here?  _ Ishar turned around, placing his Hammerhead on the Ranger and seeing the tall and gangly Owen, who had a half-eaten sandwich in his hands. “You wanted to meet about something?”

“No,” Ishar crinked his face in confusion. “Why would I want to meet up here?”

Owen repeated the confused face. “What? I just got a message from you to meet you at the Forge.”

“I was the one who called you both here,” and Ishar and Owen turned around to see a woman, accompanied by a Sentinel. Wearing a red jacket with a strange insignia, she was tall, as she was Owen’s height, with blonde hair, braided in the style of Antium, the capital of Bastion. Her eyes were pools of blue, seriousness radiating out of them. “I needed to see you in private.”

“This is private?” Ishar asked, gesturing to the market and mechanics around him. “The Forge isn’t exactly a place to hold a private conversation.”

“It is when you need the noise,” the woman replied coolly. “My name is Tassyn.”

Owen was a bit more respectful. “You always walk with a security escort?”   


“Not always. But the Sentinels have their uses,” Tassyn said. 

“You make a hell of an entrance,” Owen praised and Ishar almost rolled his eyes.  _ Owen and pretty women.  _ It wasn’t that Ishar had a weakness for women -his two weeks in Antium proved that- but he was never as bad as Owen.

“I have a job for you Freelancer,” Tassyn continued, ignoring Owen’s puppy dog eyes. 

Ishar’s eyes drifted to the Sentinel hovering above their conversation. “I like to know who I’m working with before I take a job.”

“Really?” Tassyn scoffed, before laughing. “Because from what I hear, the two of you will take any job you can get these days.”

“ _ Really,”  _ Ishar’s tone became like steel. “I don’t take contracts from outlaws, Scars, Dominion, scam artists and people who don’t tell me who they work for.”

She started to circle the spot where Ishar’s javelin was. Owen followed her, like a lost puppy, probing for more information on the potential job.

“What is the job?” Owen asked. 

“An Arcanist has gone missing,” Tassyn answered.  _ An Arcanist?  _ Ishar had worked a couple jobs for the Arcanists before, usually doing scouting work or fixing beacons. The Arcanists usually hired others for protection, however. “Matthias Summer. He was investigating some relics in a ruin near the fort. I need you to find him and bring him home.”

“If he’s still alive,” Owen muttered and Ishar nodded in agreement. “How would we know?”   
  
“Mr. Summer is one of the smartest men I know. Nobody knows the dangers of Shaper relics like he does. I’m confident that his knowledge -and his own resourcefulness- will keep him alive until you find him.”

Ishar looked at his javelin. It was beat-up and in dire need of an upgrade. He looked back at Tassyn. 

“How much?” he asked. 

“Enough to make it worth your while,” she replied. “Enough to get that old javelin an upgrade and a new suit.”

_ A new suit?  _ Ishar had heard about the new Ranger Mark II suits coming out of Heliost. Zoe had been talking about it with her son earlier, wishing she could see one for a Freelancer. Only a couple of Sentinels had them, such as Commander Vule.

“Wait, enough for a new suit?” Owen said, bouncing up and down excitedly. Tassyn stared at him.

“For the Freelancer,” she said with authority, immediately deflating him. 

_ A job. An actual job. Not a contract to check out sensors or scouting for Arcanists. An actual job.  _ It had been too long since he had an actual job.  _ Not since the Heart of Rage.  _ Was he ready for this? Was he ready for an expansion of responsibility? 

_ You stopped a Cataclysm earlier today. You can save an Arcanist.  _

“Owen, get ready for a job,” he ordered. Owen nodded. “The Freelancers ride again. Well...us, anyway.”

Owen regained his puppy-like energy and bounced up and down. “Excellent...excellent! I will go and run diagnostics...just let me know when you’re ready to leave!”

Owen turned to Tassyn and bowed deeply. “It was a pleasure!”

Tassyn simply rolled her eyes as Owen passed by Ishar, giving him a wink. Ishar rolled his own eyes in response.

The mystery woman and her Sentinel bodyguard left the Forge, but she turned around. “On behalf of Matthias and myself...thank you.”

She turned to leave again, but Ishar raised his hand. The Sentinel stepped between them, raising his own hand. “Wait. What if I-”

“Find Matthias. Trust me, Ishar Valle, I’m a woman you want to know.”

And she whipped around, marching off to where only she knew. 

_ It’s time for an actual job. No more sensors, no more routine work.  _

It was time to find Matthias Summer. 


End file.
